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For the
Romans, Britannia lay beyond the comfortable confines of the
Mediterranean world around which classical civilisation had
flourished. Britannia was felt to be at the outermost edge of the
world itself, lending the island an air of dangerous mystique.
To the
soldiers crossing the Oceanus Britannicus in the late summer of AD
43, the prospect of invading an island believed to be on its
periphery must have meant a mixture of panic and promise. These men
were part of a formidable army of four veteran legions (II Augusta,
VIIII Hispana, XIIII Gemina, XX Valeria), which had been assembled
under the overall command of Aulus Plautius Silvanus. Under him were,
significantly, first-rate legionary commanders, including the future
emperor Titus Flavius Vespasianus. With the auxiliary units, the
total invasion force probably mounted to around 40,000 men, but
having assembled at Gessoriacum (Boulogne) they refused to embark.
Eventually, the mutinous atmosphere was dispelled, and the invasion
fleet sailed in three contingents.
So,
ninety-seven years after Caius Iulius Caesar, the Roman army landed
in south-eastern Britannia. After a brisk summer campaign, a province
was established behind a frontier zone running from what is now Lyme
Bay on the Dorset coast to the Humber estuary. Though the territory
overrun during the first campaign season was undoubtedly small, it
laid the foundations for the Roman conquest which would soon begin to
sweep across Britannia.
In this
highly illustrated and detailed title, Nic Fields tells the full
story of the invasion which established the Romans in Britain,
explaining how and why the initial Claudian invasion succeeded and
what this meant for the future of Britain.
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